An Investigation of Cultural Gap between China
and Western Countries on Death Euphemism
Abstract: Language and culture are inseparable to each other. Language is the symbol of culture, and the culture is the carrier of language. As an indispensable part of language, euphemism plays a vital role in the life of society. This paper first explores the functions of euphemism. They are pragmatic function, social communicate function and cultural connotations. It then sets forth different death euphemisms between Chinese and English. Last but not the least, it elaborates the cultural differences between China and Western countries on death euphemism, from the view of euphemism’s functions. With the exploration of death euphemism, the author hopes this study can help people to improve their understanding of different societies’ attitudes towards death.
Key words: euphemism; function; death euphemism; cultural difference
Abstract iiv
摘要 iiv
Outline v
提綱 vi
1. Introduction 1
2. Euphemism and death euphemism 1
2.1 Definition and function of euphemism 1
2.2 Different Death Euphemisms 3
2.2.1 Chinese death euphemism 3
2.2.2 English death euphemism 4
3. A Contrastive analysis of different death euphemism in Chinese and English based on the functions of euphemism 4
3.1Pragmatic Function 4
3.1.1 Reflection of different social value 4
3.1.2 Evasion function 5
3.1.3 Elegance function 5
3.2 Social communicative function 6
3.2.1 Reflection of different psychology 6
3.2.2 The same pronunciation with “si” in Chinese 7
3.2.3 Death euphemism in some specific vocations in English 7
3.3 Cultural connotations 7
3.3.1 Reflection of different cultures 7
3.3.2 Hierarchy culture in China 8
3.3.3 Religious culture 8
3.3.3.1 Buddhism and Taoism in Chinese 9
3.3.3.2 Christianity in English 9
4. Conclusion 10
Works Cited 11
